Title:

cricket memory

Problem Scenario

this will give us a new understanding about insect memory.

Broad Question

do crickets have a memory?

Specific Question

can a cricket memorize a maze?

Hypothesis

i hypothesis that the cricket will learn the maze bye being trained.

Graph of Hypothesis

This graph shows that crickets will learn a maze after maximum training

Variables

Independent Variable:

training.

Dependent Variable:

how quickly crickets learn.

Variables That Need To Be Controlled:

number of crickets, maze design, food, odor.

Vocabulary List That Needs Explanation

none.

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General Plan

first i will train three crickets with peppermint and vanilla. second i will time the three threw a maze. third i will also time untrained crickets.i will train and time them in a room in my house that will always have the same temp. and same amount of human activity. fourth i will compare the times and see if the times are different by a good amount of time. if they are then the crickets can or can not be trained.

Potential Problems And Solutions

Problem, the crickets might try to follow there scent and forget the maze. Solution,change the maze but keep the maze design

Safety Or Environmental Concerns

the space might be limited be the crickets or other animals/pets.

Experimental Design

What is your experimental unit?

This is the base unit of your experiment, for example, one plant, one ice cube, one dish. It is the thing you will be measuring.
Answer: 9 crickets, 3 mazes.

Number Of Trials:

This is how many times you will repeat the experiment.
Answer: i will do this once with each cricket.

Number Of Subjects In Each trial:

This is the number of different treatments you will use. For example, if you are comparing rust formation using salt and no salt, there would be 2 subjects in each trial. If you were comparing rust formation with no salt and three different amounts of salt, then you would have 4 subjects in each trial.
Answer: in each trial there will be three subjects. (1) cricket (1) oz of

Number of Observations:

How many measurements will you take for each experimental unit times the number or trials
Answer: each trial i will time each cricket.i will measure when the crickets make it half way threw the maze and when they reach the end. i will see how long 3 crickets take to be trained to like vanilla.

When data will be collected

Looking for an actual date or dates here. This is requiring you to commit to your project.
Answer: By 2/10 max the crickets will be trained. by 2/15 the times and data will be collected for the mazes. 3/1 the data will be compared and finished.

Where will data be collected?:

Be specific.
Answer: data will be collected in the first room on the right of my house.this a calm environment, the crickets will have the same environment to "test" in so the times will not be interfered with.
(add the correct headings from the experimental design page before beginning)

Resources and Budget Table

Item	Number needed	Where I will get this	Cost
crickets.	4	pet store in Conway.	1.50$-2.00$
cardboard.	5-10 boxes	home	0.00$
plastic	6-8 bags	home	0.00$
vanilla	3 oz-6oz	Shaws	1.00$-3.00$
peppermint	3 oz-6 oz	Shaw's	1.00$-5.00$

Detailed Procedure

1. i will buy crickets from the pet store, 2, i will buy peppermint and vanilla and train the 3 crickets. i will give them water as a reward for going to the vanilla and give them a punishment form going to the peppermint after they learn to go to the vanilla i will make a maze and put vanilla in spots for them to fallow after doing this i will have them go threw the maze without the vanilla and time them. i will also time 3 crickets that have not been trained, go threw the maze. i will compare the times and see if the training did anything.

Diagram

cricket maze diogram

Photo List

picture of training.
picture of cricket half way threw maze with time.fully threw maze with time.
untrained cricket halfway threw maze with time.
untrained cricket fully threw maze with time
Time Line
2/1/13 procedure, timeline and photo list due.
2/4/13 begin training, timing crickets.
3/1/13 experiments done.
3/7/13 Analysis done
3/15/13 discussion background completed.
3/22/13 posters done.
3/29/13 SCIENCE FAIR.

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Data Table

trial	training	how quickly crickets learn
6	14.82	2.3625

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Data Analysis

All Raw Data

training.seconds.
Jeff. day 1. 22.80 sec. day 2. 19.80 sec. day 3. 16.30 sec. day 4. 13.10 sec. day 5. 14.2 sec.
Gregory. day 1. none. day 2. 10.5 sec. day 3. 15.90 sec. day 4. 9.7 sec. day 5. 8.1 sec.
sue. day 1. 23.6 sec. day 2. 20.1 sec. day 3. 18.70 sec. day 4. 18.1 sec. day 5. 16.5 sec.
Phillip. day 1. 19.4 sec. day 2. 1.3 sec. day 3. 16.7 sec. day 4. 17.9 sec. day 5. 13.7 sec.
test-trained cricket.min/sec
Jeff. day 1. didn't pass. day 2. didn't pass. day 3. 10.53. day 4. 19.31. day 5. didn't pass.
Gregory. day 1. didn't pass. day 2. didn't pass. day 3. 7.20. day 4. 18.50. day 5. 16.42.
sue. day 1. didn't pass. day 2. didn't pass. day 3. didn't pass. day 4. 13.50. day 5. didn't pass.
Phillip. day 1. didn't pass. day 2. didn't pass. day 3. 9.26. day 4. 13.76. day 5. 14.02.
test. untrained cricket. min/sec.
Dan Jr. day 1. didn't pass. day 2. didn't pass. day 3. 5.01. day 4. didn't pass. day 5. 7.32.
Franklin. day 1. didn't pass. day 2. didn't pass.day 3. didn't pass. day 4. 10.17. day 5. didn't pass.
mustachio. day 1. didn't pass. day 2. didn't pass. day 3. didn't pass. day 4. didn't pass. day 5. didn't pass.
Cliff. day 1. didn't pass. day 2 didn't pass. day 3. 8.06. day 4. 10.41. day 5. 2.13.

Graphs

this graph shows how quickly crickets learned that vanilla is good

this graph shows how quickly normal crickets can fine the water in a maze

this graph shows how fast crickets can find there food in a maze without being trained

Photos

Results

During this experiment I tried to see if crickets could memorize a maze. If not then I would try to train them to do so. After training the crickets for several days most of the crickets weren't able to make it though the maze. The half of the crickets that did make it though the maze jumped over walls repeatedly until they landed in the correct box. the other half refused to move at all. i then made untrained crickets go though the maze to compare the times and see if the trained crickets learned at all. The untrained crickets did the same as the trained crickets, they jumped around and sat in one corner. The trained cricket did have slightly better time then the untrained crickets. After actually comparing the data i ended the experiment.

Conclusion

My hypothesis was that the crickets would learn to got though a maze if they were trained. i reject my hypothesis because the crickets did not go though the maze. they did learn the scent of vanilla is good but they failed to go though the maze.

Discussion

During the very end of my experiment when I compared all of the times of the crickets test i noticed that the all of the trained crickets failed to make it to the end of the maze the first two times. i also noticed that the untrained crickets failed to make it to the end the first two times. Also at the and of the experiment i was able to confirm that crickets can not learn to go through a maze. they failed to corporate and also failed to even go through the maze.most of my data relies on time and it was hard to accurately time the crickets, so collecting accurate data was hard as well. the crickets would not go through the maze and enjoyed jumping over the walls, so to make this experiment better you could make the walls of the maze attached to the roof. The crickets that didn't jump just stayed in corners so in order to make it better you could make the corner rounded. Minor changes could have made this experiments alot better.

Benefit to Community and/or Science

This experiment will show new knowledge of other animals and ways to train/ use them to our advantages just like pets or cattle. it will also give us new knowledge about crickets and insects like crickets.

Background Research

The odor preference of crickets was tested before and 2 h, 1 day and 4 days after training by allowing the crickets to choose between peppermint or
vanilla sources.
Insects live in constantly changing environments, where the availability of food sources varies with the seasons. Therefore, the ability to learn to associate a certain cue with an abundant food source must be of great significance for insects. Third- or fourth-instar cricket nymphs were trained to associate one odor with water and another odor with saline solution.

Recently, we found that the cricket Gryllus bimaculatus have a developed capacity for olfactory learning. Here we review recent progress on the olfactory learning capabilities of the crickets, which provide a solid basis for future studies of neural mechanisms of olfactory learning and memory.Convincing reports of lifetime memory retention in insects have been limited to adults of social Hymenoptera. We have studied the time span of olfactory memory retention in the cricket

We studied the capability of the cricket Gryllus bimaculatus to select one of a pair of odors and to avoid the other in one context and to do the opposite in another context. One group of crickets was trained to associate one of a pair of odors (conditioned stimulus, CS1) with water reward (appetitive unconditioned stimulus, US+) and another odor (CS2) with saline solution

References

Matsumoto, Yukihisa, and Makoto Mizunami. "The Journal of Experimental Biology."Temporal Determinants of Long-term Retention of Olfactory Memory in the Cricket Gryllus Bimaculatus. Japan Science and Technology Corporation, 5 Mar. 2002. Web. 26 Feb. 2013. <http://jeb.biologists.org/content/205/10/1429.full>.


Matsumoto, Yukihisa, and Makoto Mizunami. "The Journal of Experimental Biology."Temporal Determinants of Long-term Retention of Olfactory Memory in the Cricket Gryllus Bimaculatus. Graduate School of Life Sciences, Tohoku University, Katahira 2-1-1, Aoba-ku, Sendai 980-8577, Japan, 2003. Web. 28 Feb. 2013.

Matsumoto, Yukihisa, and Makoto Mizunami. "Context-Dependent Olfactory Learning in an Insect." Context-Dependent Olfactory Learning in an Insect. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, 10 Feb. 2004. Web. 01 Mar. 2013. <http://learnmem.cshlp.org/content/11/3/288.full>.

Abstract

Can crickets learn to memorize a maze? My experiment will give you the answer to this question. during my experiment i rubbed vanilla around their water source to try and make them think that the source of their food has the scent of vanilla. after weeks of doing this i put the crickets in a maze. i rubbed vanilla in a box near the end of the maze and timed how long it took for them to find it. i also timed untrained rickets to see if the learning is any different. after testing both i found out that crickets can not learn memorize a maze but can tell that vanilla is their food source.